


I'm Not Going to Do This.

by The_Bacon_Librarian



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, I don't like writing cannon characters., Lighthearted, ourdumbassideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25585258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Bacon_Librarian/pseuds/The_Bacon_Librarian
Summary: Things don't go Amanaka Panihue's way during multiple Red Alert drills as a member of the USS Enterprise-D's engineering department.
Kudos: 2
Collections: Seventh Circle of Hell Challenge





	I'm Not Going to Do This.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an SG-Kree writers prompt. You can find more info at: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Seventh_Circle_of_Hell_Challenge/profile https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sg-kree
> 
> My personal prompt was: Riker and La Forge and one of them says "I'm not going to do this."
> 
> Couple three things:  
> This is my first publicly posted story. I haven't written in years. Its also my first challenge piece.  
> I took the liberty of assuming that Red Alert Drills would be common place on a space ship similar to the way school children practice fire drills. Come to think of it...they should probably practice evacuation drills too.  
> My prompt characters ended up being extremely minor characters in the story. You were warned.

“You have not entered a destination. Input your desired location before proceeding,” chimed a slightly robotic voice. Amanaka stared at the screen of her P.A.D.D. and tapped a couple of times on the colorful display.

“There isn’t a destination, you overloaded bucket of bolts. It's a static location! You’re always putting the clothing in the same space,” she muttered as she ran the hydrospanner over the open panel on the large box sitting on her table. The interface panel beeped quickly and the lights flickered before going dark.

“Damn!” Amanaka exclaimed, tossing the tools onto the tabletop. Her attempts to modify emergency site-to-site transporter technology for some mundane purposes were going about as well as she expected. Her favorite part was overcoming the challenges she set for herself which was also her least favorite part right up until the moment her engineering challenges worked. With any luck at all, she’d have the unit up and working in the next week. 

She’d been perfecting this prototype for the last three months. It was working so far in what she’d designed it to do. It would transport objects across her quarters without any issues but the programming for the specialization of the transport was taking a bit more hacking than she had anticipated. Amanaka activated the computer reset on her mini transporter. Her shoes were sitting in the area she’d marked off next to her bed. If her latest tweaks had worked, she’d be ready to test it when the next alert came.

“Red Alert. All hands to battlestations.” The klaxon blared throughout Amanaka’s quarters. She jolted awake, jumped out of bed and began walking toward the door. As she walked, standard issue black boots materialized onto her stocking feet. She continued through the door and began to jog down the hallway. Before she had made it to the first connecting corridor, she was wincing slightly.

Amanaka rounded the corner and jogged into main Engineering, limping slightly. She took her place around the center console, joining the rest of the junior crew. A few of them were disheveled looking, one was breathing a bit heavier than they should be and Amanaka silently shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Commander La Forge stood with both hands on the end of the console silhouetted by the pulsing blue light of the warp core.

“Alright. I want to shave at least thirty seconds off of the time during the next drill,” La Forge looked at each junior officer as he spoke. “Ensign Kuval, impeccable timing. Ensign Galateo, you’re out of uniform. Make sure you are ready for off duty alerts. Ensign Anderson, report to fitness enhancement for the next month. We need to up your physicality,” He stopped as he came to Amanaka. 

“Ensign Panihue, is there something wrong?”

Amanaka immediately stopped moving. A quick glance at her feet confirmed her theory. Her uniform transportation device had put her shoes on the wrong feet. She squared her shoulders, clasped her hands behind her back and replied, “Not at the moment, sir.”

The commander raised his eyebrows and gave a last glance at those assembled. “Dismissed, Panihue, I need a word.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. The pair waited until the junior officers returned to their personal pursuits. Geordi walked around the table and gestured to her feet.

“Oh, um. Personal project sir. I think it caused blisters but…” her voice trailed off at the look on his face. It was a mix of hidden amusement and consternation.

“In the middle of a red alert, we have to power through uncomfortable realities. However, if there is an issue at the end of a drill, I expect a forthright answer,” he finished.

“Yes, sir.”

“Report to Sickbay for those blisters. Dismissed.”

Amanaka was bored A few tweaks and her portable uniform ‘porter was fairly reliable. She’d run some mock drills of her own and it seemed to work fine. It didn’t really save her any time reporting to battle stations. She hadn’t managed to arrive in Engineering before Ensign Kuval; his Vulcan efficiency seemed to outmatch every device and every plan she made. Technology was slowing her down and that was the exact opposite of what it should do. In Amanaka’s mind, technology was there to improve efficiency and make the world move faster. There was nothing to do! She needed inspiration.

“Anderson to Panihue….Amanaka you’re late! You dressed or what?” The disembodied voice rang from above.

“On My Way, Lee. Panihue out.” She checked the time and realized she’d be wearing her uniform to the holodeck. She’d get chewed out for ruining the fantasy of a 20th Century rock concert. Why did people even bother to change clothes before going to the holodeck? It was possible to program the holodeck to clothe you in holo-clothing. If only she had holographic clothing, surely that would be faster than transporting physical clothing onto a person. Amanaka looked back down at her computer display and began tapping the brightly colored touchscreen.

Chimes sounded in the air. Amanaka ignored them as she continued to work on her program. Again the door chimes sounded and she huffed in annoyance.

“Enter!”

Lee rushed in her curly hair brushed out into half frizz. It was dyed blonde and stood out in contrast to her blue eyeshadow and red lipstick. She had on skin tight stonewashed jeans and an off the shoulder black t-shirt. Amanaka stared at her friend’s outlandish outfit with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I never made it to the Meatloaf concert,” she grimaced.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Lee grumped, “But I’m a Modern Lady so I don’t need to go everywhere in a group. Whatcha workin on?” She jumped from grump to curious fast enough to make heads spin.

“Fashion, You want in on the action?” asked Amanaka.

“For a special girl like you, I sure do. Besides, fashion has never been your strong suit,” Lee said, “What kind of fashion are you talking about because this is just a bunch of holo-programming.” 

Lee reached over Amanaka’s shoulder and tapped through several screens of programming. Amanaka kept her eyes on Lee's face, watching as she began to comprehend how the programming would play out on a holo-emitter.

“This. Is. A. Thrill. Seriously, the amount of off duty fun you could have with this is mind blowing,” Lee looked over at Amanaka, “But that's not what you had in mind was it?”

“Not hardly. The applications for this tech are way beyond frivolous civilian use. Imagine the use in the intelligence community. Oh! Away missions, anthropology and archeological uses. I mean why hasn’t this been developed before? Sure there are always times when the practicality of physical artifacts must be taken into account but,” Amanaka’s voice trailed off as Lee pressed a fast kiss to her lips.

“Stop talking, mon cheri. We have work to do. Someone needs to help you design the physical aspects of the fabric.”

“What fabric? With a holo emitter, you don’t need fabric,” Amanaka replied. Lee cackled in delight over Amanaka’s lack of insight.

“Sure you do. All of those applications you thought of will require a basic outfit in case a scientific anomaly shorts out the emitters. But it's cute that you were ready to give up on under garments,” Lee smirked and picked up the P.A.D.D, “I’ll remind you of that later.”

Amanaka was pacing in Engineering, monitoring a level four diagnostic of the electro-plasma distribution network in the newest holo-fabric. She’d had the holo-fabric displaying her standard issue uniform template for her entire shift. Her P.A.D.D. was displaying that the holo-emitter battery was currently at twenty-five percent. This was great news for the holo-fabric’s power source. Her shift would be over in ten minutes leaving plenty of time to get dinner in Ten Forward before the battery ran out. She’d rather not walk down the corridor in the jumpsuit Lee had designed. It was a supportive and snug grey woven suit with micro emitters enmeshed throughout the fabric but it was most definitely not standard issue.

“Level Four Diagnostic complete. Electro-plasm distribution is outside of normal parameters in Jefferies Tube 25, Junction 4,” reported the computer.

“Damn,” Amanaka grabbed her engineering kit and headed for the junction. This was going to take every bit of her dinner time to fix but it was worse to have malfunctioning EPS conduits. They were known to cause everything from comm badge interruptions to explosions and Amanaka would rather avoid those outcomes.

Forty-Five minutes later found Amanaka chasing the malfunctions behind a panel in the tube. She was balanced on one hip with a tricorder in one hand as she fiddled with the conduit with the other.

“Computer, report on the electro-plasm distribution of Jefferies Tube 25, Junction 4.”

“EPS distribution is within normal parameters. A level 4 diagnostic is recommended after repairs are completed.”

“Thanks Computer, I’ll note it in my log for the next shift.” Talking back to the computer system always felt like the polite thing to do.

“Red Alert. All Hands to Battle Stations,” the computer intoned through her combadge.

Amanaka groaned and crawled to the nearest exit. The combadge alert and lack of klaxons let her know that it was another departmental drill. She began running as soon as she made it through the exit. She jogged through the main engineering doors and took her spot at the main computer console table opposite of her Vulcan coworker. Ensign Kuval stared and raised his eyebrow in that eminently Vulcan style of subtly saying nothing and yet everything all at the same time. He looked toward the warp core. Amanaka followed his gaze and saw Commander Riker standing slightly around the curve of the warp core railing. He was leaning against the railing as Lieutenant Commander La Forge stood, P.A.D.D. in hand surveying all of the stations in main engineering as the crew took their places.

Kuval quietly cleared his throat. That sound brought Amanaka’s eyes back to him. He gave her a hard look and then glanced down quickly and back up again. She looked down and to her dismay noticed she was standing in her grey holo-fabric jumpsuit as the last vestiges of her uniform sparkled away. She closed her eyes and stood up at attention. When she opened her eyes, Riker and La Forge were walking up to the console table. Commander Riker gave her a quick glance and with a twinkle in his eyes that did not quite reach his mouth, he gave a nod to the Chief Engineer.

“I’m not going to do this. See you at 0700 for coffee, Commander,” Riker said and he walked out of main engineering. La Forge sighed as he rubbed his hand across his chin.

“Do I even want to know?” he asked.

“Well, Sir...it all started when I had my shoes on the wrong feet several weeks ago,” Amanaka replied.


End file.
